The circumstances of his death have led
him to be called a martyr by Christians, including Pope
Francis, non-Christians, and the press. Calls to make him a
saint started soon after his death. The canonization cause was officially
opened at diocesan level in April 2017, after Pope Francis had waived the
otherwise mandatory five-year waiting period for the opening of such causes.

Hamel was born on 30 November 1930 in Darnétal,
France. At the age of six he became a choirboy in St. Paul's Church in Rouen and at 14
he entered the minor seminary. He served in the military for 18
months in Algeria. He did not wish to be an officer as he did not want to issue
orders to other men to kill.

Hamel was
ordained as a priest on 30 June 1958. He served as a vicar at the St. Antoine
church in Le Petit-Quevilly from 1958, a vicar at the
Notre-Dame de Lourdes church in Sotteville-lès-Rouen from 1967, a parish priest
in Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf from 1975, and a
parish priest in Cléon from 1988. He joined the church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in 2000. He
officially retired at the age of 75, but was allowed to keep serving in the
parish. As a result, he assumed his role as the parish's assistant priest from
2005 to his death.

With local imam Mohammed
Karabila, the president of Normandy's regional council of Muslims, Hamel worked
since early 2015 on an interfaith committee. After Hamel's death, Karabila
described him as his friend with whom he had discussed religion and as also
someone who gave his life for others.

Tombe du Père Jacques
Hamel au cimetière de Bonsecours

Death and
legacy

Main article:
2016 Normandy church attack

Hamel died
when his throat was slit by two Muslim men, Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean,
who both pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The attack occurred
while Hamel was saying Mass in his parish in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on 26
July 2016.
During the attack, Hamel said "Satan, go!" when confronted by his
killers.

Pallbearers carry the
coffin of Father Jacques Hamel into Rouen Cathedral which was followed by
fellow priests and bishops

In August
2016, the Italian arm of Aid to the Church in Need announced it
would cover the cost of training 1,000 new priests in countries like Nigeria, Cuba, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India in response to
Hamel's murder. Likewise, in August 2016, in memory of Father Hamel's martyrdom,
Br. Alexis Bugnolo founded the Ordo Militaris Catholicus, "international
defense and security initiative of Catholics for Catholics who are suffering
persecution for their faith, where their defense and liberation requires
military intervention or security actions, and this is allowed by local and/or
international law.."

Pope Francis celebrates
a special Mass for Hamel on 14 September 2016

Canonization
cause

On the same
day of the murder, public figures like the president of Lombardy, Roberto
Maroni, called on Pope Francis to "immediately proclaim him St
Jacques". The hashtag #santosubito ("saint now") trended on Twitter.

Hamel was
called a martyr
by some international press shortly after his death. On 13 August, La Croix
reported that archbishop Dominique
Lebrun of Rouen said he thought Hamel was a martyr, but the decision to
declare him so was the pope's. He added that "formally, it is the bishop
of the person's place of death to initiate the procedure." Anthony
Fisher, the archbishop of Sydney, suggested he died in odium fidei
("in hatred of the faith"), adding, "This is a term Catholics
use to describe the characteristic death of a martyr, as one who dies for his
or her faith, and because of that faith."

On September
14, 2016, Pope Francis referred to Hamel as "blessed", a title used
prior to canonisation. "This man accepted his
martyrdom next to the martyrdom of Christ, on the altar," Pope
Francis said on 14 September during a homily at a Mass held for Hamel's soul at
the Vatican. "He is a martyr and martyrs are beatified," the pope continued. Two
weeks later Archbishop Lebrun announced in a homily that the Pope had formally
waived the five-year waiting period needed before the start of a canonization
process, and that he had decided to prepare it without delay.

During Chrism
Mass (on Holy Thursday, 13 April 2017), Archbishop Lebrun
publicly announced the opening of the Canonization cause, with all of Rouen's
clergy gathered. Archbishop Lebrun also said the Pope himself allowed a photo
of Fr. Jacques to be put in a church, and called him blessed. Fr Paul
Vigouroux, vice-chancellor of the diocese of Rouen, has been appointed
postulator of the Cause, in charge of the local investigation. The Archdiocese
of Rouen distributed a prayer to request Father Jacques's intercession. The
prayer makes reference to the circumstances of his murder, including his
unmasking of Satan, the divisor and his death in the habits of prayer.

On July 31,
2017, Hezbollah fighters in Arsal town of north Lebanon, wrote down a salute
for the soul of Father Jacque Hamel. In a salute written from the battleground
on a carton sign they wrote, "Father Jacque
Hamel, your soul will never be lightened off, we will live in all ages with
your memory. Don't worry, we will protect our Christian brothers. Peace be upon
you, your brothers in Hezbollah."

Paris, France,
Jul 27, 2016 / 11:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Sister Danielle, one of the religious
who was held hostage by ISIS at a church in France, was able to escape in a
moment of inattention by the terrorists and alert the police.

However, they
were not able to arrive in time to save the life of 84-year-old Father Jacques
Hamel.

Speaking to
RMC Radio, the sister related the incident that led to the death of the first
priest at the hands of ISIS in Europe and which left another person severely
wounded.

“I didn’t
think they were going to come after Jacques. It was still dawn. He was standing
in front of the altar, they made him get down on his knees and then he started
to resist. When we saw the knife in the right hand I said to myself, ‘well,
something’s really going to happen there,’” she said.

Sister
Danielle said that even though the other nun and the faithful present were
shouting to the terrorists to stop, they went ahead.

“They were
shouting ‘you Christians are wiping us out.’ They were taping themselves on
video. They made a kind of sermon around the altar in Arabic. It was
horrifying.”

“He was an
extraordinary priest,” she recalled, “that’s all I can say. Father Jacques is
great.”

Fr. Hamel was
killed Tuesday after two armed gunmen stormed a church in
Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy during Mass. The assailants entered the
church and took the celebrating priest and four others hostage. Local law enforcement
reported that the priest’s throat was slit in the attack, and that both of the
hostage takers were shot dead by police. One of the hostages has been
critically wounded.

Pope Francis
decried the “absurd violence” in a statement Tuesday, adding that he is praying
for those affected by the tragedy.

The French
bishops have designated Friday, July 29, as a day of fasting. Msgr. Olivier
Ribadeau Dumas, secretary general of the French Bishops Conference who’s
currently in Poland for World Youth Day, discussed the decision July 26.

“What happened
in France had happened in other countries before, and actually we see
Christians laying down their lives in the interests of their faith,” he told
journalists in Krakow.

“They die
because they are objects of hate and this for a fact gives us an additional
motivation to live the life of fraternity we are called to.”